Bad Thoughts Talk Episode 5: The Perils of Social Media
Social Media is a complex phenomenon that has made an immediate impact on our society and culture. The first thing a lot of us do in the morning after we hit snooze for the final time is check one of our many social media accounts. We find out about new music and how others feel about the latest [enter artist here] album, same goes for the latest films and movies. Social Media accounts have become our initial source for news, every news outlet in the world has a Twitter or Facebook account that alerts you about what's happening in your neighborhood, country, and world.
I am an active participant in that ethereal and I found myself being upset by its trappings by its fallacy and lack of perspective or context. It's a universe of unbridled emotion. Maybe an angry Tweet has stopped an abusive or dangerous situation from formulating or maybe even stopped a rape or a murder but I doubt this type of catharsis can even be true anger because those moments don't devote themselves to letting your followers know you're angry. Maybe, Social Media has become the refuge for cooler heads when you're a little less angry you can release your anger in a healthy way, by talking shit on the internet.
This all seems ridiculously hard to navigate and if you aren't secure in yourself I believe that you can be heavily influenced by what the purveyors, the populars, those whose opinions seem to be forced into purview think or hold true find apt for acceptance. That exhaustive space of opinion, fact, ignorance, pride, perturbation, vehemence, sorrow and some weird amalgamation of them all with more turbulent, contradictory, rationally absurd behavior and thoughts is entrancing and influential. It can also be counterintuitive especially when what you portray on Social Media is used to judge you in the "real world" or used to make a judgement about your character or who you are as a person. These profiles aren't separate they aren't made up. They are apart of our being, small or large, they are us and should be judged.
As I am writing this I can't help but wish I would have addressed what our need to be heard, monetarily secure, famous, or just some people's need for incessant unceasing attention has added to this ethereal. I used to believe that the prevalence of cameras and the over saturation of opinions only revealed the world to be the chaotic nearly ungovernable place I had always thought it to be. But I did not think or believe that being insincere and performing and living for attention would be something that a lot of people would adopt. I did not think about all the different ways the human psyche forms and perpetuates itself. I did not think about the pressure of comfortable, materialistic survival and how our democracy and culture promotes gluttony and how our brand of capitalism grossly exploits basic human survival instincts. I intensely resent and find contestable what is found trendy and in some grand egoism understand how easily the human mind and sheep's mind are comparable.
And maybe that is my overly emotional reaction to my perception of what I think and perceive are the prevailing thoughts of people on Social Media. I understand that who I choose to follow can control my understanding of the platform but I am attempting to argue that no matter how you engage with Social Media no matter what values your "Friends," "Followers," or whomever you will undoubtedly bring those thoughts and beliefs into a reality where you can actually physically touch someone. Despite our refusal or denial to truly assess our environment. We quickly and almost indiscriminately label the modes of our environment without any forethought because of the influence of the morals accepted by the peer pressure of Social Media.
I am aware of what Social Media has done for business and commerce. A new billionaire pops up every goddamn second because of the cellphone/tablet/computer industry. They employ a small percentage of the graduates from the United State's thousands if not millions of college/university graduates every year. Our population is so consumed with "intellectual property" that we don't realize that our culture has produced nothing but ideals to force upon the rest of the globe. We create industries based upon our "idealism" and don't understand that our "idealism" is our greatest capitalist enterprise. Wars are waged because of the idealism expressed by social media activists.
Activism bred and wrought on social media is something I hate more than anything! I'm too emotional. I'm done.
